Ben Foster has a message for City: forget about breaking into the top four this season, let alone challenging United for the title.

And the England goalkeeper insists that he and his team-mates have not given moneybags City a moment’s thought.

Foster can’t wait to pull on the gloves for his first derby today – but he believes Mark Hughes’s record-breaking transfer-market splurge has no chance of undermining the Reds’ dominance in the city.

Foster, 26, said: “I think they will be up there, but this season will be too early for them. The Big Four will probably be there come the end of the season.

“It takes time to gel. When you get a lot of players arriving in a short space of time it’s hard for them to know what other players are doing in the team, what jobs they do, what they’re good at, what they’re not good at.

“I think that takes time to realise, and team togetherness takes time to settle in.”

The Blues have made an impressive start to the campaign, leading many to predict that they will break the league’s long-established top four, and challenge for the title.

But Foster said: “We don’t talk about them in the dressing room. It’s not something that comes up. We just concentrate on our own football.

“We’ve got some of the best players in the world in our dressing room. We are not thinking about City.”

The United goalkeeper endured a deafening night in Besiktas’s Inonu Stadium in Istanbul on Tuesday. But he knows that the atmosphere will also be incredibly intense and passionate at Old Trafford.

He said: “Some of the lads have played in dozens of these derbies, and they reckon that everybody seems to step up their game by 10 or 20 per cent.”

Foster has endured long spells injured in the past, but is relishing his extended run in the team during Edwin van der Sar’s absence.

Foster said: “When you have a solid run in the team you can look forward to games, settle down a bit more.

“The World Cup is in sight, so it’s doubly important that I do well in any games I play.”